HIPS council is really obstructive about personal searches /not sure what to do?

19vivat

My local council first told me the search i needed for a hips cost £208. They then said well actually £77 for con29R plus £35 for LCC1. They alao said that going in to search was not allowed. When I said I thought it was, they said well I could go in for £11 but a lot of information wasn't available and I'd have to read their documents and take my own notes for the search. They made it sound extremely difficult. (I phoned twice).
So I decided to pay for them to do the search. However they sent me an "Easysearch form" for the LCC1 and told me to write LCC1 on the top of the form. I'm now not sure which boxes to tick on that form. It's a form usually used (I think) for the £208 search and knowing this council if I tick any wrong boxes it will cost me lots. I was thinking of sending it back unticked and just adding a note saying I need the stuff required for LCC1.There is a separate form for con23r

To be honest I'm finding diy HIPS rather hard work and next time will pay someone to do it for me but now I'm committed to this path. Any comment/advice gratefully recieved. J

david29dpo

Where the hell are you if a local land charge search cost that much? Most i have paid is £135.00

19vivat

That is the price of full search in Croydon

david29dpo

LLC1 & CON29 forms are standard across the board. I have some if you want them.

Richard_Webster

HIP companies have negotiated discounted rates with personal search providers who tend to have a standard national rate. these will go up because they now have to pay varying rates to Councils to get the information from them. The personal searches are generally acceptable provided they have the insurance backing in case they make a mistake. That's why you can't just wander into the Council offices yourself and go round the departments collecting the information for the CON29R - you won't have the insurance backing that is crucial for the search to be acceptable in the HIP. Given that you are going to have to pay for an EPC and a drainage search I am sure you would find A HIP company that could do it more cheaply.

If you were somewhere like Portsmouth where the local search fee is only £50 or Southampton (£67.11) there would be absolutely no point in using a private search company and the cost of the HIP would be that much cheaper!